A season of torn up lawns and missing sidewalks is coming to an end for the village of Granville.

At a recent village board meeting the members spoke about how impressed they were with the company that won the bid to install the distribution system water pipe along Columbus and Mettowee streets as well as the water well field and locations throughout the village.

“They really did a great job and kept it moving,” trustee Dean Hyatt said.

Paul Labas and other board members agreed. “When you go over there you don’t see them walking for place to place – they run,” Labas said.

All of the running has paid off DPW superintendent Dan Williams said Friday as he expects that portion of the job to finish this week.

The company, Tom Kubricky Inc., had until October to complete the job, Williams said.

“They’ll be out by something like Wednesday, they’re way ahead of schedule,” he said. The company won a $1 million bid for work including installing distribution system water piping along two main streets in the village as well as connecting pipe from the new water wells to the new water treatment plant, directional boring to install pipe near Rite Aid, under the Mettowee River near East Main Street and a connection to East Potter Avenue as well as sidewalks, paving and topsoil.

As impressed as the board was with the work ethic of the Kubricky crew, trustee Gordie Smith said he was also impressed by their PR skills.

“They’ve been great about letting people know what’s going on, they’re going up and knocking on doors to tell people what they’re doing,” Smith said.

As a result, Williams said complaints have been at an understandable level. “Nobody’s happy when you’re tearing up their yard, but people have been pretty good about it,” he said.

Although the overall project came in under estimates by $700,000 the project has had a few minor cost overruns the board learned July 11.

Change orders totaling $19,000 were approved by the board after additional work had to be completed at the site of the new water treatment plant and extra costs were incurred during the directional boring process when the company kept hitting rock while drilling.

“Right now the distribution work is basically done,” Williams said.

Sidewalks

Monday morning department of public works employees worked along Columbus Street between Pacific and Elm streets replacing a slate sidewalk removed to make way for part of the $4 million water treatment upgrade project.

Williams said residents who had sidewalks removed to make way for the project got a choice if they had slate walks – they could have slate back or get new concrete. Most, he said, have taken the concrete option.

“The people ho took it (slate) said they wanted it because that’s what Granville’s known for,” Williams said.

Unfortunately, he said, the project did not include adding any sidewalk to Mettowee Street leaving the walkway to the end of the street incomplete.

The plant

Work on the heart of the new water plant located off of Park Avenue at the carnival grounds reached a milestone during the past week as the rafters were placed. Workers began closing in the roof July 18.

During the final week of the month Williams said workers were expected to begin installing components of the geothermal heating system as well as the building’s internal electrical systems.

The internal working parts of the water treatment facility will be installed as soon as the interior floor is poured, Williams said.

The filtering apparatus have already begun to arrive at the job site in pieces which will later be re-assembled inside the treatment plant, Williams said.

The project is slated to finish, yielding a functioning, fully-compliant water treatment plant at the end of the year and is in a good position to be on time, he said.